Have you sweated an event?

Have you sweated an event? We have. Sweating an event comes as registrations are stagnating over time.

Your plane is about to take off with empty seats. You’re not going to hit your revenue goals. Worse yet, you’re about to embarrass yourself and your organization. Your stomach is in knots.

If you’ve felt the sting of a poorly attended event, you probably don’t want to feel it again. We certainly don’t!

That’s why an SAA (sales agency agreement), negotiated in advance so that it can be implemented quickly, can be your best friend. Here is how it works.

Concept

Long before panic time, /buzzquake will approach on your behalf a membership organization and propose an SAA. Of course organizations whose members are similar to your target demographic make the best sales agents.

We’ll make a deal with the organization that says we get to decide when we trigger the SAA. Once implemented, they will be allowed to offer the event to their members at a discounted price, often 30% less than face value.

Membership organizations like SAAs because they represent a low-effort, low-risk way to add value to a membership.

From our perspective, the goal is to leverage their membership list to reach more people and fill our plane before takeoff.

Implementation

We’ll watch attendee registrations over time. If our attendee marketing works as it should, we’ll sell out on our own and we’ll never need the SAA.

But If registrations flat-line with no sign of recovery, we’ll recommend implementing the SAA. Within a day or two, our sales agent will transmit a message that we’ll help craft to its members announcing a “specially discounted price” for them.

If the SAA is properly structured and executed, it can salvage an event that would otherwise whither on the vine.

It’s a life ring. A parachute.

Art of the science

The hardest part is knowing when to pull the trigger on the SAA. That’s where experience comes into play. We guide our clients through a decision process using facts and metrics, and, yes, gut feelings based on years of experience. The goal, of course, is to fill the seats while maximizing revenue.

Collateral benefits

It isn’t only about maximizing registration on one event. An SAA also exposes a new group of people to your organization and its programs. Good things will come from that!